Mister Organ (Movie)

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    ‘Mister Organ,’ ‘Destroyer’ and More Streaming Gems

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    Con artists and ghost stories are among our recommendations from the subscription streaming services this month.A unique horror omnibus, an existentialist supernatural story, and atypical star turns are among our recommendations from the subscription streaming services this month, along with some essential background viewing for one of this year’s Oscar nominees.‘Mister Organ’ (2023)Stream it on Netflix.The New Zealand journalist David Farrier has carved out an unusual niche for himself, crafting documentaries about fringe figures that at first seem to be jokey oddities, but later reveal disturbing dimensions and shadowy back stories. His previous feature, “Tickled,” took him into the bizarre world of Competitive Endurance Tickling, and the mysterious figure bankrolling it; this time, an investigation into predatory parking practices puts him in the sights of a con artist named Michael Organ. And that’s when things really get strange. As with “Tickled,” Farrier’s latest begins like a human interest story and turns into something closer to a thriller, as the peculiarities of this unstable personality reveal themselves, often unnervingly. Farrier is a solid anchor for this strange journey, proving unflappable (and capable of finding the gallows humor) in even the most extreme of circumstances.‘Destroyer’ (2018)Stream it on Amazon Prime Video.Nicole Kidman — de-glammed and borderline unrecognizable — stars as the corrupt, alcoholic Los Angeles Police detective Erin Bell, whose investigation of a stray dead body leads her down a rabbit hole of re-examining her own troubled past. The director Karyn Kusama and the screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, who previously collaborated on the tense and terrifying thriller “The Invitation,” expertly tell two stories at once: of Bell’s undoing in her 20s as an undercover F.B.I. agent, and of her current, perhaps irredeemable iteration. It’s a tough balancing act to pull off, but Kusama gets the job done, keeping our interest in each timeline piqued without one overwhelming the other. And this is among Kidman’s finest and most chameleonic work, expertly dramatizing both a woman in disarray and the circumstances that got her there.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Mister Organ’ Review: Antiques Sideshow

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      A documentarian’s investigation into peculiar events outside a New Zealand antiques shop turns into a horror story.When the New Zealand journalist David Farrier began investigating a peculiar series of events happening in a car park outside an antiques store in a town he likens to the antipodean equivalent of Beverly Hills, he most likely had no idea he’d wind up being haunted for life. Farrier directed and co-stars in an account of those events that can rightly be called a documentary horror film. If its title, “Mister Organ,” initially strikes you as humorous, you won’t be laughing long.In 2016, Farrier happens on a local interest story in Ponsonby, a suburb of Auckland. On evenings outside the emporium, Bashford Antiques, a bearded fellow with a van is clamping cars parked without permission, and charging extortionate rates to free up the vehicles. As local legislatures move to change the laws allowing this practice, Farrier recognizes the bearded man, Michael Organ (or, as he sometimes signs his name, Michael Organe), as a self-proclaimed royal who, years before, had served time for a yacht-snatching scheme.Further investigations, including unusual and sometimes impromptu interviews with Organ, reveal him as a man of many moods — one who soon tells Farrier that “somebody” has given him, Organ, the key to Farrier’s house. Further creepiness ensues.Organ is a terrifying type: the sociopathic con artist who doesn’t so much work on discrete schemes as lead an entire sham existence, with no specific aim besides gaslighting and controlling others. A free-floating malefactor who can expound on any topic for hours, a master of sophistry. In one interview, Organ tells Farrier, with great confidence, “There’s a difference between you not being able to prove something as true and me being able to prove that it’s false.”Not one psychiatrist or potential diagnostician is interviewed. Explaining Organ might blunt the impact of experiencing the man through Farrier’s eyes — the movie’s unsettling journey ends at an abandoned mental institution.Mister OrganNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters. More